A blog post by B2B Marketing Strategist Ardath Albee notes that when you try to plan your marketing strategy around what the competition is doing, you give your competitors the power to define your marketing message and lead the industry — while you meagerly follow in their shadow.

Albee says, “If your first response to the development of messaging and content is to think about the competition, you’re giving them the power to own the market … Being reactionary and defensive with your messaging, content and conversations means you’re not being true to your company. You’re letting your competition define you.”

Instead of concentrating on matching what your competition is doing, focus on distinguishing yourself in the marketplace.

“All of us have competition,” notes Albee. “We can either bow to them or we can go out and change the game by engaging our markets differently.”

Find your unique story
Creating a marketing strategy and supporting messaging that distinguishes your company enables you to carve out your own chunk of the market and emphasize your own unique company history and story.
Albee suggests the following strategies:

• Market your strengths and your advantages over the competition. Assess your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses and compare them to your own. Are they lacking in areas that you excel in? Capitalize on your strengths and advantages!
• Emphasize your unique tone and style. What tone and style does your competitor use when interacting with customers and prospects? How does it differ from your tone and style? If they trend toward corporate and stuffy, and you take a more casual, personal approach, then emphasize your personable uniqueness!
• Own your share of the market. What areas do you excel in over the competition? They may have a website with all of the bells and whistles, but can’t hold a candle to your social media success and blog following. Identify what chunk of the market you excel in, and own it!

Now — tell it!
Putting these strategies into effective marketing action requires a marketing tool that can regularly reach your target audience, communicate your unique message and emphasize your distinct style and tone. What better way to accomplish these goals, and so much more, than with an email newsletter!
eNewsletters offer many benefits that can help distinguish your company from the competition:

• The design can be unique to your brand and incorporate your specific tone and style, helping you to establish your unique brand identity with your audience.
• The regular touches an eNewsletter provides, whether monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly, offer the opportunity to tell your story multiple times in many different ways, and engage readers who are at various stages in the purchase cycle.
• Providing educational and informational articles offers readers value and establishes you as a thought leader in your industry.
• eNewsletters offer multiple opportunities for reader interaction with you and your brand. Beyond the Subscribe and Forward buttons, readers can interact with your eNewsletter by viewing samples or demos, claiming special incentives, downloading white papers or product information, and linking to your social media sites.

Developing a unique marketing strategy and supporting messaging extends your brand and provides the foundation for all of your custom content marketing efforts — giving you the tools to set yourself apart from the competition.